Words by Professor Katie Atkinson, Dean of the School of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science.
The University is saddened to learn of the passing of Professor Trevor Bench-Capon on 20 May 2024.
Trevor started his academic journey reading Philosophy and Economics at St John’s College Oxford, where he also took a D. Phil, producing a thesis titled “Can God be an Object of Reference?”. Trevor met and married fellow Oxford student Priscilla Bradley in 1978, with them both appearing on University Challenge, representing separate colleges, during their time at Oxford. After graduating, Trevor joined the Civil Service, working for six years in the Department of Health and Social Security, in policy and computer branches. He then returned to academia, joining Imperial College, London as a post-doctoral researcher to conduct research into logic programming applied to legislation, building on the practical experience he had gained in the Civil Service. At that time, AI was a somewhat niche research topic and much of the focus of AI was centred on logic programming that the group at Imperial became well known for.
Trevor then moved to join the Department of Computer Science at Liverpool, securing a position as a Lecturer in 1987. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1992, Reader in 1999, and Professor of Computer Science in 2004. He then went on to serve as Head of Department of Computer Science from 2005 – 2008. Through his numerous administrative roles in the department, Trevor introduced several curriculum innovations. Together with Paul Dunne, he introduced the new programme on Computer Information Systems to broaden the curriculum to entrants interested in both the core and applied aspects of modern computing. He also introduced year 2 group projects to provide students with experience of working in teams, to reflect industrial settings, and also the option for students to study computing degree programmes with a year in industry, which provided to be very popular. As HoD Trevor also oversaw the introduction of the first XJTLU 2+2 programmes in the department at the commencement of the partnership in 2006. Another significant project that Trevor directed that year was the physical move of the Department of Computer Science from the Chadwick Tower to its current home in the Ashton Building. This was a major operation and Trevor worked closely with our technical staff lead, Ken Chan, to get everyone and everything organised for the move. At the conclusion of the move, being so pleased with the newly refurbished Grade II listed building, Trevor commented to me that he felt like he now worked in a ‘proper’ university department.
Trevor’s research contributed to new topics for the department and firmly put Liverpool on the international map as a centre of excellence, specifically AI & law, and computational models of argument.
- In the 1980s, AI and law was a nascent topic but the increasing interest from variouselectrical international groups led to the birth of the International Conference on AI and Law (ICAIL). Trevor published a paper in the proceedings of the first edition of this conference in 1987 and every edition since. Trevor’s dedication to the conference resulted in him being elected as President of the International Association for AI and Law, which runs the ICAIL conference, for the term 2002-2003. He also served for many years as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the community’s flagship journal, Artificial Intelligence and Law.
Trevor was also instrumental in setting up the International Conference on Computational Models of Argument (COMMA). The first edition was held in Liverpool in 2006, arising out of the EU-funded ASPIC project. The tenth edition of this conference will be held in Germany in September 2024, publishing research on subject matter that is closely linked to today’s pertinent topics on explainable AI. A further significant contribution to this community was Trevor jointly editing in 2007, with Paul Dunne, a Special Issue of the Artificial Intelligence journal, one of the top journals in AI. The twelve articles comprising this issue give a powerful sense of just how significant Computational Argument was as a subfield of AI.
Trevor retired as a Professor in 2012, but he retained solid links with the department as an Honorary Visiting Professor, continuing to publish prolifically and engaging in applied research projects on AI and law being conducted at Liverpool, with a key one being a collaboration with law firm Weightmans.
Trevor’s personality left as much of an impression on his audience as his research did. He was full of questions about new research presented at conferences and had a staggering memory for recalling who published which advancement, where and when within the vast literature on his research areas. He thrived off coffee break and conference dinner discussions about intricacies of concepts and new formal theories. Through these enthusiastic interactions, he conceived ideas for many new strands of collaborative research and developed a network of international collaborators – resulting in 158 co-authors in total over his 300+ papers. Trevor also had a great many tales to tell about times past, covering fallouts with now-famous comedians about material arising from the Oxford university comedy club, dinners with ex-Prime Ministers during their student days and unforgettable encounters with world famous jazz stars. Trevor was also an avid sports fan and changed his working schedule to fit around the baseball World Series. He was equally dedicated to his local church, St Bridget’s, West Kirby, for which he edited the church magazine for many years.
As well as his own research contributions, Trevor cared deeply about supporting the next generation of researchers. He evidently enjoyed deep discussion with PhD students about their research ideas and was extremely supportive of students getting their work published and presented at conferences. My own academic journey started with encouragement from Trevor to pursue a PhD in computational models of argument.
Trevor leaves behind not only lasting contributions to the University of Liverpool, but a significant legacy of research and leadership in his international research communities. Trevor’s wife Priscilla, and their three children, welcome colleagues attending his funeral, to be held on Friday 14th June at 1pm at St Bridget’s Church, West Kirby, Wirral, CH48 7HL.